10 Times Star Trek Didn't Think It Through
Some of these Star Trek moments were awesome on first glance, but when you stop to think about it...
Occasionally Star Trek will introduce an idea so profound it will ripple through the rest of the franchise. Other times, Star Trek will introduce a profound idea immediately forgotten by all concerned.
Listen, opening up the writers' room to submissions has its ups and downs, ok?
In saying that, these ideas can sometimes be enormous in their implications but too enormous to give the requisite time to. Does the franchise want to spend years discussing something that happened in one episode, once?
*cough Tuvix cough*
There are times that something makes it into the script that really did deserve further exploration, only to be dropped from any future mention. Now, there are also other examples - ideas that are inserted into canon that truly strain what has already been established.
Something inserted to one era can have a major impact on another. So, why isn't it mentioned?
Tough luck, huh?
10. Achieving Warp 10
Beginning with The Next Generation, Warp 10 was established as the unachievable limit. We see the Enterprise reach speeds of 9 and above but for short periods. Transwarp was introduced in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (in Starfleet ships, namely the Excelsior).
Descent introduced transwarp corridors. These would return in Star Trek: Voyager as the primary mode of travel for the Borg. Transwarp still far slower than Warp 10.
In Threshold, the Shuttle Cochrane achieves Warp 10 twice. The episode claims that it inhabits every point in the universe at once. If we allow for a literal dramatic liberty, it's still very fast. Within the episode itself, there are plot shortcuts - if the evolved Paris could take Janeway anywhere, why did he just stop a couple of days away from home?
Having managed to cure Paris and Janeway of their mutations, why were there no efforts to adapt Voyager with this new technology? Or when they reached home, why was their research not immediately spread through Starfleet?
While they may have struggled to master the technology in the 24th Century, might not they have achieved this by the 32nd? This was a case of - fun episode, but never intended to play a larger role in Star Trek's history. Therefore, just like those salamander babies, it was brushed under the carpet and never spoken of again.